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"I thought they were crazy," he siad. "Crazy weird. Crazy fun. Crazy cheap to produce as well. Maybe a new culture of commercial."

When Mr. Francois noticed how many consumers were posting their own GIFs to Tumblr, he decided to roll the dice and show Fiat's GIFs on TV. Although risky, it has the benefit of affordability. Using GIFs are a cheap way for a brand with a tight budget to produce cool-looking work that can connect with young consumers.

"It's an experiment," Mr. Francois said. "If it works -- and so far so good. If it doesn't work, no big deal. We didn't invest so much money."

Mr. Francois is not a big fan of airing user-generated TV commercials created by amateurs. But GIFs are a way for Madison Avenue to interact with consumers on social media. During the next phase of the campaign, the car maker will ask consumers to create their own GIF's with the hashtag: #MyFiatUSA. The best will be posted to Fiat's Tumblr page.

Said Mr. Francois: "I'm not sure they can do better commercials. But they can probably do better GIFs. With this technique, we will create a very large number of potential commercials."

As an upstart auto challenger in North America with a limited marketing budget, the Italian brand has to take chances, said Mr. Francois, who also serves as Fiat Group Automobiles' Head of Fiat Brand.

The 30-second and 15-second "Endless Fun" spots created by The Richards Group promote four models: the Fiat 500, Fiat 500 Cabrio, Fiat 500 Turbo and Fiat 500L. They're certainly attention-grabbing.